Dear Girl Thunder

Sometimes I buy a product based only on its name, and this was one of those times. The name isn't quite as funky as it sounds though. This is a candy bar affiliated with the "Black Thunder" line of products made by Yuraku. I believe the "thunder" parts relates to the fact that the bars are full of crunchy cookie bits.

I thought this might be an attempt to market a special line of candy bars toward women, like the ill-advised "Fling" candy bar. Further investigation seems to reveal that it is based on an anime show. Products based on anime are a dime a dozen in Japan, so that was a big disappointment. The bar could have contained some secret estrogen-enhancement ingredient, or been formulated for female tastes (not that I'd know what that is), but, no. It's just a boring name based on a cartoon.

Fortunately, the bar itself is actually pretty good. Like the other bars in this line, it is small, about 3 inches long by 1.5 inches wide (7.6 cm x 3.8 cm) and made with very weak and soft chocolate. The shining star of it is all of the little cookie pieces that pepper the interior. They're not too dense so they're not incredibly hard, but they are pleasantly crunchy. The bar has a nice cookie flavor coupled with coconut and cocoa.

There's no nutrition information on the bar, but considering the original Black Thunder was about 100 calories and this is very similar in size and composition, I think it's safe to conclude this is about the same. I found this in Family mart convenience store for about 25 yen (31 cents) and would definitely buy it again. If you like Twix or chocolate-covered Oreos, there's a chance you'll like this. It's not as sweet as those, but it has the same pleasant cookie qualities.

Black Thunder Cocoa Cookie Crunch

"Black Thunder" sounds like the name of a hyper-caffeinated beverage, or possibly an adult film star of African descent with a premature ejaculation issue. It doesn't sound like the name of a relatively unassuming but tasty little candy bar which can be had for a bargain price of 27 yen (25 cents).


This bar, which is similar in shape, size and appearance to the Yuraku Almond Caramel Latte bar and made by the same company has such a dumb name that I have skipped buying one for quite some time. I was worried that there was going to be some jolting, harsh flavor included to represent the "pow" of the "thunder". Now that I've sampled it, I know why it's called "Black Thunder", though it certainly isn't a name we'd choose in English. The "black" part comes from dark bits of bittersweet chocolate cookie. The "thunder" part comes from the crunchiness of the bar which you can "hear" in your ears as you chew.


The bar smells very weakly of cocoa. The chocolate is soft and a little waxy, but not unpleasant. The cookie bits inside are crunchy and the chocolate chips so lacking in distinct taste that they can't really be separated from the coating. Despite the fact that this doesn't sound great from what I've written, this is an enjoyable bar. In fact, the first bite immediately reminded me of chocolate-covered Oreo cookies from back home. This is perhaps just a little less sweet, but it's definitely a close approximation.

Once again, Yuraku has surprised me. This is another smallish (about 3 inches long by 1.5 inches wide) bar from that company which provides satisfaction in a compact package for around 100 calories and a very small price. If you miss chocolate covered Oreos from back home, or just like crispy chocolate-covered cookies, you'll want to sample this.

Yuraku Caramel Almond Latte Chocolate Bar

When I saw this bar, I thought that someone was trying way too hard to throw the candy equivalent of the kitchen sink into one itty bitty bar. There are so many parts to the name of the bar that they can't simply write it across the package. They have to stack "caramel" on top of "amond" which is on top of "choco bar" and "latte". There's even more that doesn't fit into the name. There are also wheat puffs in it.


This is another of the candy options available in some stores for only 27 yen (25 cents) that you can pick up with kid's snacks. It's a little less than half the size of most bars and is made by a company named Yuraku (ユラク). It makes a variety of sweets including cookies, candy bars, chocolates and souvenir sweets. Most of its products are pretty low rent and either blandly or badly packaged. The company's "principle" is "contributing to society through making candy." That's some lofty goal. I wonder if one tiny little bar is going to live up to that.


The bar's smell is so mixed that it's hard to pin it down. The scent is like an elixir of malt, cereal, coffee, and chocolate. The "cereal" smell comes from the wheat puffs which are present in abundance. The large white bits in the detailed picture above are these puffs and the first bite of the bar strongly reveals the cereal flavor. In fact, the puffs portion tastes exactly like the Popeye wheat puff cereal my parents used to buy for me when I was a kid. Subsequent bites bring about a stronger sense of all of the flavors. All of them, the caramel, coffee, chocolate, almonds and wheat puffs are present in an extremely tasty mishmash of flavors. The bar is crunchy, but easy to bite into and chew.

The ingredients list for this bar is huge, but the whole bar contains a good balance of sweetness and complex flavors. It's no premium bar by any stretch of the imagination, but it's very good, particularly for 90 calories and for such a low price. It's definitely something I'd have again. The lesson learned from this experience is not to conclude that something is going to be bad because it's cheap and from a company which isn't very well known. This is a tasty little bar.